Spukhafte Fernwirkungen

Oh, so that's how my friends actually feel about it? I hope you said hi for me when you talked to them. Lol

My experience with this sort of thing from the time I spent living in Japan is that most people I came across were usually pleasantly surprised that something from their country had been embraced in other parts of the world. It didn't really matter if the finished product was good or bad - a lot of my friends probably won't even watch this because they'd have no reason to, but they likely think it's cool that Confidence Man JP made enough of an impression to be remade in a different country.

Most of my friends in Japan don't mind this sort of thing. I get the sense they feel flattered something from their country has caught on in a different country and is getting remade.

I'm glad it worked for you. I almost stopped watching the episode completely because I found it so distracting.

The semi-opaque pillarboxing for the first two-thirds of episode 1 might be the single most distracting post-production technique I've witnessed in my years of watching movies and TV. One wonders why they didn't just make it fully opaque.

So, an entire 11 episodes with grandma being one of the most remorselessly cruel people I have seen in a drama, all to be resolved in a "blink and you'll miss it" apology and reconciliation? I mean, even though I was expecting a reconciliation, the casual treatment it received after her behavior throughout the entire drama was just so... so..... unsatisfying.

Fantastic job by Ban Hyo Jung though - she really sold the cruelty wholesale and was able to retain enough of her character's pre-reconciliation attitude to make the abrupt 180 seem a little less jarring than it could have been. Her character still has a lot to answer for, though. Grandma was truly a horrible person.

Agreed. I don't understand either. This has been an exceedingly rare "never a dull moment" drama for me.

I can respect that. Both of my parents are avid listmakers. I think it skipped a generation with me, haha.

It didn't need to be sophisticated, it just needed to be effective. I mean, you do know the agents who came in to investigate probably brought in the money they "found" and didn't really try to hide the fact they were framing him, right? Sure, it's cartoonish, but works because the whole show is cartoonish (and, thankfully, hasn't messed up its tone by trying to overextend itself into thematically alien territory, unlike many other dramas over the past few years)

I see where you're coming from, but curating a list here would be a purely social thing for me (I mean, I know if I've watched a drama or not when I'm scanning Viki/Netflix/etc. for something to watch, so keeping a list is unimportant for me personally. The only purpose it would serve is to show others what I've watched.)

Same here! Their placement worked because I ended up going to their website to see if there were any in the US still. There are, but they are few and far between, haha.

Although it was kind of refreshing to see underdog Quiznos sneaking in instead of Subway this time 😆

I'd say at least 75% of what I've watched since 2017 has been Korean drama, and this one easily ranks among the most consistently entertaining of the hundreds I've seen. For my tastes, they've done a great job balancing all the elements and keeping the pace moving. What an incredibly fun watch!

Edit: And for those who may check my profile to see what dramas I've watched (and if I have watched as many as I claim), I'm not a very social person, so it doesn't really matter much to me if I add to my watch list and I only do it if the mood hits me. But, yes, I have watched hundreds of dramas in the past 8 years 🙂

You do know you're pretty much agreeing with OP's initial comment when you say what's portrayed in this drama may resonate with many other young women, right? Indeed, what happened between the ML and FL when they were teenagers may resonate with a younger crowd who don't have a lot of life experience and consider it to be among the biggest, most heartbreaking, most "end of the world" things that could have happened. But for most people I've come across in life, what happened between the ML and FL when they were younger, no matter how traumatic it may have seemed at the time, would be something easily (although maybe embarrassingly) laughed off as they get older and counted among the usual missteps of teenage years and learning how to navigate the waters of dating and romance that most people experience at that age. And this is our critique of the writing when it comes to the FL (and, in my case, at least, the ML, too) - it's that it shows a woman who is strong and emotionally resilient in pretty much every aspect of life except this one thing that for many people would seem like nothing more than a silly episode of youth by the time they reach the FL's age. Speaking as yet another person in this comment section who is over 30, her still being traumatized by that seems unbelievable and incredibly inconsistent with her character, and, quite simply, just bad writing. I find the ML still being traumatized by it slightly more credible because he hasn't had a ton of emotional growth since then, but only slightly - I still think it's pretty absurd that he's holding onto it so ferociously at his age, even taking his lack of emotional development into account.

I don't mind flawed characters. Quite the opposite actually - some of my favorite characters over the years have been heavily flawed, both female and male. What I do mind is inconsistent characterization that doesn't make sense and is hard to believe, which is what I see in this drama.

To break it down for you: yes, there are things here to hate in the writing - maybe not for you, but for others of us, most definitely. No one is belittling a fictional character - we are criticizing the writer's handling of a fictional character because it is totally at odds with the way rest of her character is written and far out of the realm of the way most people (or the ones I know, at least) would handle a similar situation if they were the FL's age. As for why I watched the drama knowing the premise, it's because I never assumed the writer would handle the whole thing in such an absurd and childish way (although I think the director is also partially to blame for making the whole tone of the breakup far more serious than it should have been, for all the aforementioned reasons). Live and learn, I guess. I'll probably laugh about how silly this whole thing is in a few days... or I could follow the writer's lead and be traumatized by it for the next decade 😆

It seems to me that they're hating on the writing more than anything else. And I'm with them on that. The idea that both the ML and FL are still so traumatized by something that would likely be nothing more than a silly and somewhat embarrassing teenage romance incident for most people seems to stretch the boundaries of believability, even by Kdrama standards.

I will honestly say that both leads did a fantastic job in episode 9 despite having to work with one of the most idiotic reasons for a breakup I've come across in my years of watching Korean dramas.

I think it plays like a really fun drama from 7 or 8 years ago, and that's exactly why I like it so much. True, there aren't many new things in romcom Kdrama land lately, but, honestly, there hasn't been much that could be considered new for well over a decade, if not longer - even something as extravagant as Queen of Tears had a plotline that wouldn't have been anything out of the ordinary 20 years ago. My problem with Kdrama romcoms from the past 5ish years is that the writers are still churning out the usual formulaic stuff but feel the need to throw in totally stupid elements that are either overly angsty or just plain ridiculous and don't work with the story in order to make their run-of-the-mill romcom seem "new", "exciting", and "different". I've had countless romcoms ruined for me in recent years because of this trend. I'd much rather have something like this drama that presents a basic but fun story, no matter how clichéd, and does it well than watch a romcom that thinks it needs to add something edgy or whatever in order to differentiate itself and totally screw up its story in the process.

Totally agree! I loved this drama from start to finish. (And bonus points for Lee Jong Won making me completely forget how much I hated his character in Bad Memory Eraser.)

I am in complete agreement with all of that.

I think you know why I'm still here. Honestly, I was surprised you were being so rude because you've generally been one of the more respectful cheerleaders of the drama.

And it appears you may not have fully read my reply. I said you gave the drama a 10/10. That is no indicator of anything other than your personal opinion.

Let's drop this, shall we? Just please be more respectful.

That seems a little rude. Ratings are private unless a person feels like letting other people know how they rated something, and then they're not private anymore. You yourself gave a very public 10/10 rating and full review that's featured on this page.

Also, as long as people are being respectful of each other and posting something related to the drama, they can contribute whatever they want to the conversation here. And this user gave their honest opinion and contributed a favorable view of the drama. There's nothing wrong with that.